G. 512. W. 458.

in a morris.

Read:

in morrice-array.

G. 515. W. 460.-Amongst us this day.

Read: Amongst us to-day.

G.518. W. 463.-For "What you call," read, "What do you call?"
And for "breakedst my back," read, "brak'st my back."

G. 519. W. 464.-Let us have some mild questions:
Have you mild answers!

For this strange stuff, read:

Let us, to some mild questions,
Have your mild answers.

The Justice speaks to Mother Sawyer.

G. 519. W. 464.-You speak too!

And for,

G. 520.

Read:

A witch? who is it?

A witch! who is not?

W. 465.-Give way; let her tongue, &c.
Read: Give way, and let her tongue.

G. 524. W. 468.-Oh, my ribs are made of a payn'd hose. "Paned hose are what would now be called ribbed breeches. The intended pun will be easily understood!"

To one of Mr. Weber's receiving, nothing is difficult. Paned hose, however, were a kind of trunk breeches, formed of stripes of various coloured cloth, occasionally intermixed with slips of silk or velvet, stitched together. The allusion in the text is to the facility with which they might be rent asunder.

G. 525. W. 469.-She beat out her brains.

G. 527. W. 471.-" Exit Banks, Rat. and Countrymen."
Very good! The 4to reads Exe.

G. 528. W.471.—A morrice makes me spit.
Read: That morrice makes me spit.

Cuddy alludes to a particular one.

G. 536. W. 478.-Would I had wings to soar up to yon tower. Read: Would I had wings but to soar up yon tower! Which is more like the poetry and the language of Ford's days.

G. 536. W. 479.-Yet she is willing.

Could not Mr. Weber see that the answer, "I am that cur," depended upon it?

G. 541. IV. 483.

-"to have thee torn in pieces."

-" to have thee torn in pieces then.”

This leaves the sense imperfect.

Read:

G. 543. W. 484.-Prithee speak, Ningle speak.

G. 549. W. 488.-" Enter Sir Arthur."

Read:

Enter Justice and Sir Arthur.

This is an unlucky omission; for the Justice not only opens the scene with a set speech, but is the principal speaker in it.

G. 549. W. 489.-For " Cuddy," who is not on the stage, read "Carter."

G. 551. W. 490.-She bewitch'd a sow to cast her pigs a day before the day they (the embryo pigs) would have farried!

Excellent! The embryo pigs miscarrying of a litter the day before they were farrowed themselves, furnish so decided a proof of Mr. Weber's good sense, that, though I have yet a few points to remark, I shall, in justice to his meritorious labours, stop here.-Finis coronat opus.

Read, however:

She bewitched a sow to cast her pigs a day before she (the sow) would have farrowed.

G. 492. W. 443.-I casually observed that there was better authority than Osborne's for doubting that passion for burning witches, with which the commentators assure us James I. became so furiously agitated on his accession to the throne of England; but inadvertently dropt the note, which should have accompanied the passage.

While James was skirting the capital, which the ravages of the plague made it hazardous for the court to occupy, he maintained a correspondence with his eldest son, then about ten years old, over whose education he watched with an anxiety truly paternal. The prince, it appears, had given him some account of his (or rather his preceptor's) detection of a young impostor, who pretended that she had been bewitched; and probably accused some poor innocent neighbour. The king, in his answer, adverts to this circumstance. He tells Prince Henry, that he is glad of the detection of his little counterfitte wench, and prays that in

such discoveries he may prove his father's aire [heir.]— For," continues he, "ye have ofte hearde me saye that most miracles now-a-dayes proves but illusions; and ye maye see by this how warie judgis shoulde be in trusting accusations without an exacte tryall, and likewayes how easilie people are induced to truste wonders."-Progresses of James I. p. 304.

There wanted not such an extract to shew that the object of this monarch's inquisitorial solicitude was not-the hunting out of witches,-but the detection of imposture; the preservation, not the destruction, of this persecuted race.

As the page is not full, I shall not incur much censure, perhaps, for adding the following passages from a couple of volumes now before me.

"Nichol's Progresses of James I.

"Chief Justice Winch, of the Common Pleas, (Mr. Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carlton,) and Serjeant Crew, are somewhat discountenanced for hanging certain witches in their circuit at Leicester; whereas the king coming that way found out the juggling and imposture of the boy that counterfeited to be bewitched"! "To the interference of the king" (the editor adds) " may be attributed the preservation of five other unfortunate females, who, having been imprisoned under a similar charge, were liberated by him on the 15th of October; a sixth having died in gaol."

"Sir James Balfour's Annales of Scotland.

"1650. Tuesday, May 21. This afternoone James Grahame" [Duke of Montrose]" was executed, conformably to the sentence of Parliament, at 3 o'clocke."

1650. The next day, Wednesday, May 22.-The House appointed a Committee to try fifty-four witches!"-Edinb. Mag. 1825, p. 564.

A

LIST

OF

FORD'S PLAYS.

1. THE LOVER'S MELANCHOLY, T. C. Acted at the Blackfriars and the Globe, 24th November, 1628. Printed 1629.

2. "TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE, T. Printed 1633. Acted at the Phoenix.

3. THE WITCH OF EDMONTON, T. By Rowley, Dekkar, Ford, &c. Printed 1658. Probably acted soon after 1622. Acted at the Cockpit, and at Court.

4. THE SUN'S DARLING, M. Acted in March, 1623-24, at the Cockpit. Printed 1657.

5. THE BROKEN HEART, T. Printed 1633. Acted at the Blackfriars.

6. LOVE'S SACRIFICE, T. Printed 1633. Acted at the Phoenix.

7. PERKIN WARBECK, H. T. Printed 1634. Acted at the Phoenix.

8. THE FANCIES, CHASTE AND NOBLE, C. Printed 1638. Acted at the Phoenix.

9. THE LADY'S TRIAL, T. C. Acted at the Cockpit in May, 1658. Printed 1639.